The Mochi Quandary: Holding A Snowflake
by MomotsukiNezumi
Summary: Lithuania, despite all his repeated efforts, never manages to win the affections of Belarus. However, a present from Poland might just give him a little bit of what's he's been trying so hard for. After all, if you get your fingers mangled when you so much as look at your crush, you certainly have a right to be deserving more than just a refusal and some broken bones.


She was staring...no wait, _glaring_ at him again. Lithuania wondered if that was all he was ever going to get out of her. This had been going on for several hours now.

Then again, it wasn't as if she could do anything else. She didn't even have arms or legs, just a small, muffin-sized roundish body, a very pale greyish-white, almost a snow white color. Her large eyes, an icy, pale grey-blue, stared at him in what could be a terrifying death-glare...if she'd been human. Instead, the glare looked far more like a pout, and merely made her look cute. A small bow, striped with blue and white, sat atop her "head". The bow was a miniature replica of the one worn by his longtime crush, Natalya Arlovskaya, the beautiful but dangerous female representation of the country of Belarus.

He'd had a crush on her for a very long time now, and his best friend Poland, also called Feliks, was his eternal confidante in the endless love he he'd for the frigid girl. For years now, Poland had listened to his dreamy sighs, and long sappy thoughts, and all the laments he held over never being able to get a date from her. It certainly wasn't from lack of trying; no, he'd never gotten a date from the "Ice Princess" of Europe, because she had an obsessive love interest in her older brother Russia, who had tormented Lithuania and his brothers Latvia and Estonia for decades on end with constant cheerfully-delivered death threats and various degrees of bullying during the time of the USSR. He didn't really hate Russia, but he'd often wondered what in the world his beautiful crush saw in such a huge, terrifying person. Whatever it was, it apparently drove Belarus to the pursuit of Russia with a determination so strong it seemed, for many countries, to be utterly demented. Day after day after day, he was forced to watch from the sidelines, looking on sadly as the object of his affections ambushed, stalked, and trailed after Russia, proclaiming loudly her love and devotion to someone he knew would never return her affections. Many countries in the world were scared of Russia, but Russia himself was positively _terrified _of his devoted little sister.

Poland always said that it was because "She's, like, a scary stalker with a creepy big brother complex and a love of all things sharp and pointy. Who _wouldn't _be scared of that?"

Lithuania thought it was because she was too strong for him. After all, no other female nation that he knew of had the power to frighten the biggest nation on the whole planet, even when not in the same room as him. If that wasn't proof of her strength, then what was?

_However, that might be part of the problem. She likes strong people. Russia was strong. Russia still is strong. _

_But I'm weak. Not as bad as before, but still weak. _

Lithuania and his brothers had been little more than playthings and a place for resources and workers during their time in Russia's house in the years of the Soviet Union. He'd lost count of the many times that he and his siblings would run and hide, fleeing to some dark corner of the house and praying to whatever deity might listen that someday they may be freed from the cold, dark, empty place. They'd done what they were told, they showed no disobedience, they'd not put a toe out of line. "Keep your head down and follow your orders", that was the golden rule of Russia's house. But they were scared in those days anyway, because of Russia. They'd stayed with him, and worked for him. Lithuania knew that he and his brothers were scared of him then, and they were still scared of him now.

Russia, he thought, tried to make friends, tried to be nice, tried to find someone who he could be good to. Lithuania could see that he was lonely, and who wouldn't be, when your country is so vast and cold, and your neighbors scared of you? But he was broken a bit inside, Lithuania thought, because of all the wars and problems that had happened in his country's history. He'd become broken, and no one had to power or will to fix him, not when he was so scary to others. So Russia stayed broken, and when he was "nice" to others, like himself and his brothers, they all knew they had to be extra careful. Russia was like a bomb that no one knew how to defuse, so they all had to be on their guard. "Nice" could easily become "not so nice" in Russia's house.

But that was then, and this was now. He lived on his own now, like his brothers. They visited each other often, as did Poland. His economy wasn't tied to the USSR any longer, so it was free to produce and flourish as best it could. His people were free too. His government was free, and so was he. Free to live like he wanted, free to pursue anyone or anything that caught his fancy, free to be _himself _again, for the first time in so long...

But he wasn't free to have a relationship with Belarus, not so long as she chased her brother. He'd tried to move on, but it wasn't easy, and it never worked. He'd gone on a few dates, but sooner or later, his thoughts would always stray back to pale golden-brown hair, and pale grey-blue eyes, cold and hard like chips of ice, the familiar rustle of the long skirts of her old-fashioned dress, the sharp edges of those knives she carried, a blinding silver shine laced with deadly cutting precision...

He'd seen her fingering those knives and looking pointedly at him on more than one occasion, simply by looking at her in any way other than fear, respect, and complete obedience. He'd gotten swiped at with those knives when he'd so much as made one mistake in front of Russia, or by looking at Russia in any way other than fear and submission.

He'd gotten his fingers broken by her too, he remembered, simply by stuttering in front of her.

But she'd touched him. She'd willingly touched him, taken hold of his hand. She'd broken his fingers, of course, but he thought it was a start. She'd broken whole arms and legs before, and stabbed them too, he'd seen it when she'd gone with some of Russia's troops during wartime. Compared to that, he'd gotten off lightly.

Lithuania was startled out of his musings when his house phone rang. Giving an apologetic look to the tiny blob sitting on his kitchen table, he took hold of the phone and picked it up, to be greeted by the familiar valley-girl accent of his best friend. "So, do you like my present, Liet?"

Poland's voice came in so loud through his phone that Lithuania almost dropped the receiver. "D-darn it, Feliks, don't _do _that, please! The last time you talked so loud, I dropped the food I was holding and it spilled all over!...And yes, your present is very nice."

Poland merely laughed, the sound amplified in the otherwise quiet kitchen. "Ha, I _knew _you'd like, totally love it! I can't believe Russia wanted to get rid of it so badly, kind of strange since it seemed pretty attached to him. I mean, the guy's _totally _forever alone in that huge house of his, you'd think the guy would leap at the chance to have some willing company that's not his creepy sister!"

"H-hey, Natalya isn't creepy!", Lithuania defended his crush, "...W-wait, you mean that this present was for _Mr. __Russia_?"

"Well, _yeah_, I already _said _that, Liet, weren't you listening?", Poland replied. Lithuania nervously twisted a lock of his milk-chocolate hair around his thin fingers. "Well, yes, you did already say that, Feliks, I know, but why do you have her then? W-Wouldn't Mr. Russia want to keep her, since he's lonely?"

Poland sighed on the other end of the phone. "I thought he'd keep it, since this thing can't really hurt him or anything. I came over to his house earlier today-"

Lithuania gave a soft gasp of horror, he'd _willingly _gone over to Russia's house? Poland was either very brave, very crazy, or stupid. It was possible that it was all three. Then again, since the fall of the USSR, Poland seemed to have a death-wish, making it a sort of mission in life to annoy the person who'd caused so much fear and pain to people he considered a sort of surrogate family. Having Poland over at his house _did _seem to annoy Russia somewhat as well, considering Poland would gossip as obnoxiously as possible, and even occasionally point out secret passages into the house to Belarus to strike some fear into Russia's heart. Poland seemed to consider this "fun", for some reason that Lithuania couldn't understand.

Ignoring his friend's apparent fear, Poland continued. "And the guy was walking to the road, holding something in his hands. I couldn't really make it out at first, since it was white and there was snow all over the place. Anyway, he also had a box under one arm, and he set it down on the ground, and he put the thing in his hands in the box, and then he taped this, like, _ginormous _box shut, you should've seen the look of this box, Liet, it was like, as big as a kid or something, and duck taped all over, and there were _chains _wrapped around it too. He was shaking like a freaking leaf in the wind, man, it was _nuts. _Anyways, once the box hit the ground, he high-tailed it back to his house and shut the door. I could hear all the bolts and locks click shut on the inside. Once he'd gone back in, I went to check out the box, it seemed kind of fishy that he seemed to want to put all that stuff on the box, so I thought it was probably some super important thing he was dropping off to be picked up by the government or something. I went to the box, and I saw that the postage address said it that the sender was Belarus. I thought it was probably one of those gifts she sends him to try and bribe him into marrying her, and those are usually pretty pricey. So, I took it home with me and opened it up, and lo and behold, I see a tiny blob thing with, like, the biggest eyes _ever _staring back at me. Well, more like glaring, but you get the point. Anyway, I found a note from Belarus next to the blob thing, and the note said, minus all the sappy love declaration crap, that this thing is a "mochi" that Belarus made of herself. Apparently, she made it to give to Russia to remind him of her love for him during the times when she's not stalking him. I think she got the idea to make it from when Japan had that World Meeting back at his place and they served those mochi things with ice cream and bean paste inside. It's supposedly a pretty nice thing to give to people you like..."

Lithuania felt his already rather dismal self-esteem drop a few notches at this. _Of course she'd make it for him. She loves him, after all, so of course she'd send him presents. _

Poland still hadn't finished talking. "... and it asked me if I was "Big Brother", and of course I'm all like "Uh, _no_, bitch.", so it tells me to take it to "Big Brother", and I thought, 'Hey, this thing doesn't seem to know what Russia looks like, so why not give it Liet instead? This thing gets love and attention, Russia doesn't need to piss himself out of fear of a rice ball, and Liet gets his crush all to himself, except it's cuter, more cuddly, and won't break any of his bones! Win, win, right?' So, since Russia obviously didn't want it, I figured you might like it instead, since it _is _from _her._"

Lithuania stared at the receiver for a long moment. _I...I got something from Belarus. It might be intended for Mr. Russia, but I got something from her! And I can actually hug this one!_

"Thanks Feliks," he said quietly. "You're a real friend, you know that?"

Poland laughed. "I already knew that, but it's nice to hear it anyway! Anyhow, I gotta go feed my pony, he's getting hungry and if I don't feed him when he's hungry, he'll try to eat my curtains. I'm _so _not up for replacing my curtains, they're my favorite shade of pink. Enjoy your present, Liet!"

He hung up.

Lithuania grinned slightly, before placing the receiver back into its socket and turning back to his new housemate. The rice cake looked at him for a moment, before shuffling across the old wooden surface. She was still glaring at him, but it wasn't quite as bad as before. She almost looked...sad?

_Can rice cakes even get sad? Well, it looks like this one can. What do I do? How do you comfort a rice cake?_

Then, for the first time since he'd found the package on his doorstep, he heard his tiny companion speak. It was little more than a whisper, but it was Belarus' voice, all right, though it was laced with an uncharacteristic sadness, and what was unmistakably hurt. Clearly, the mochi had heard the entire conversation.

"Big brother...doesn't _want _me?", came the soft whisper. "B-big brother...doesn't _love _me?"

Lithuania stared at the pained expression of the little creature, and felt a pang of sadness. _She doesn't even know why Russia doesn't want her. All she was made for was to symbolize Natalya's love for him, and he rejects her. Just like he rejects her as a person, too..._

Walking over to the kitchen table, Lithuania took a moment to remind himself that this was a mochi in need of comfort, a mochi without arms and legs to hit him with, or knives to swipe at or stab him with. The mochi had nothing more than a tiny mouth to bite him with, and he'd had worse than that. There was no danger from this tiny, gelationous, anguish-filled creature looking down at the table with those big sad eyes...

Gently, he reached out a shaking hand and scooped the tiny creature into his arms, cradling the softly crying mochi against his chest and humming an old tune he'd learned from Estonia one snowy evening while making borscht at Russia's house. The crying stopped, slowly, and then Lithuania felt the slightest of nudges, light as the brush from a fairy's wing, against his thin fingers. Looking down, he saw the mochi meet his gaze with large grey-blue eyes, red-rimmed from crying, the ice in them thawing bit by bit.

"Big...big brother Russia doesn't love me...," came the soft whisper again. Lithuania nodded sadly, but he was unprepared for what came next.

"...but you, you are...nicer, I think. Will you be my big brother instead?"

If this was about anyone else, he knew that the meaning of the words would be quite different, but this was a mochi of Belarus, of his beloved Natalya. He understood very well what the mochi was asking of him. And he couldn't be happier about it.

_It may not be the human Natalya, but this is still a little piece of her for myself that I can love and cherish. No more being sad about rejected date offers, or being attacked with knives. Just a little bit of her love for me to love too._

Lithuania gave a watery, but genuine smile to the mochi in his arms, and replied quietly, "Yes, I'll be your big brother, Natalya."

The smile he was given in thanks was beautiful. He made sure to memorize it, along with that happy look. He'd never seen the human version of her smile, but he would be more than happy with this.

_Looks like I can love you after all, Natalya. _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OMAKE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Somewhere in Poland, the familiar valley-girl accent of a certain cross-dressing nation could be heard. "No, Mr. Sparkles, that's, like, _not _food! Put that curtain down right now, mister! I mean it, that's like, my favorite shade of pink!"


End file.
